A bit late to say this, but I never felt good about paying Bernier 2mil a year. He’s getting paid the same as Burrows, and I don’t need to tell you guys what’s wrong with that. At least Wellwood has a more reasonable salary.

Although I agree with you about a shakeup of some kind, I am really against mortgaging the future. The only way that’s a smart move is if the return gives us a guaranteed cup, and I just don’t think that can happen. Even if we don’t make it this year, if the Canucks do the right things in the offseason I don’t see why we couldnt next…grabner, coho, hansen, shirokov etc. they’ll all be a year older and better. Of course coho is a question mark with not much play this year, but a champion is a champion, and I believe he could make the big club.

The lack of production from lines 1 and 3 is disturbing to say the least, but the fact is we had those same two lines during december and january…it’s feb. 10th now and we’re already talking about dumping the whole third line cuz they don’t produce and the team’s going to tumble? Sorry, but you most definitely ARE hitting the panic button with that kind of talk. I’d expect that from Ed Willes. From you I find it a bit depressing.

Bernier and Wellwood have been boat anchors, but I don’t think they’re the cause of the teams misery these last couple games. I do believe that Bernier would be an easier trade than wellwood, cuz I think Bernier does have a good player inside him somewhere. Wellwood, I just don’t think he cares all that much. If Wellwood’s natural talent had Kesler’s work ethic, we’d have a monster on our hands. Unfortunately…

Our defensive woes are a real bummer right now, and it is something the team really can’t control. Injuries happen, and it’s times like this we’re very happy to have a Baumer and a Luko in the system. It would be hard for a team to manage with say 8 or 9 NHL caliber top tier defensemen…what do you do, send some really good players to the minors? I don’t know if that would be welcomed by the players and would have some pretty bad long term consequences to the team. No defensemen would ever want to play here knowing they’d be sent down. It’s a hard thing. I do 100% agree that trading bieksa would not be a bad thing, and having Mitchell back will certainly be beneficial. I’m somewhat of the mind as well that because of what I mentioned before, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to trade salo for someone who isn’t prone to injury. I love salo, but if we could trade him and someone else for just one good top 6 defenseman of Salo levels without the injury problems, that would go a long ways to alleviating defensive concerns.

Of course, all of this is just my opinion, and as I’ve stated before in various ways, if I was a good NHL GM, I’d be one…obviously, I’m not.

If he stays healthy (yeah, I did say “if”, sigh), and if (there’s that word again) no deals are to be had at an acceptable price, then might we consider using Demo as the 3rd line center, between say Hansen and somebody else? I mean, the guy did play well centering Gaborik on Minn’s top line.

Definitely no time to panic. Except the puzzling fact that they don’t seem to get into the game until the second period (and getting the first goal scored against them), their play was pretty decent on this road trip. The distraction of the olympics, and Mitchell’s absence is also a factor that will go away soon.
I think that the post-olympic stretch will show that they are the same team that piled up those wins in January.

I wonder if the Olympic roster freeze this Friday will act as Gillis’ de facto trade teadline or if he’s prepared to wait until early March?

Not nearly time to panic. If they go 2-6 on the first 8, then we can start getting concerned.

A 7-7 road trip is still easily attainable.

Wellwood needs to go, and maybe Bernier too (more just because we can fill his spot with equivalent talent for cheaper…like Hansen or Grabner, although I’m in the minority that likes Bernier for his physical presence of which this team lacks). But that needed to happen regardless…even if they went 5-0 I’d still say we needed a better 3rd line centre.

As for Bernier, I am nearing the breaking point, but I tolerate him still because I think he works as hard as Kesler and Burrows, and is physical, just has NO HANDS AT ALL, nor does he play with Raymond or the Sedins, so he doesn’t produce like those two.

Line 1 and Line 2 are good just as they are. The Sedins had a bad week – it happens to every player. We haven’t seen the last of their offensive dominance.

Line 3 is what needs to be addressed. I think this has to be the end for Wellwood. His only benefit was supposed to be play-making skills and a scoring touch. I haven’t seen either all season unless you count that epic-fail pass that lead to the GWG yesterday. Bernier, however, deserves more time and patience. He legitimately improved his skating and conditioning in the off-season. He’s a big body up front who can play physical – something we don’t have anywhere else in our top 3 lines. He’s still young. We gave Raymond chance after chance and now it’s paying off in dividends. Bernier deserves the same opportunities to prove he belongs on this team. His paycheck is a bit steep but it would be a wasted investment to just give up on him now.

Jeff Carter is Getzlaf’s replacement.

but a team that gives up the opening goal 7 straight games is not going places unless they change more than just their sunny disposition.

The Leafs did that, but for a majority of those games they had the Human Sieve in net. That’s just surprizing to see a team with a goalie as good as Luongo doing that…

If that hand gets any closer to the panic button, I’m gonna stomp on it with my golf shoes, metal cleats and all. The Burrdins were due for a letdown, especially on the road. Talk of going 7 and 1, or 6 and 2 on the first segment of tRTFH™ were a little pie in the sky. Get the O jumpstarted, get the first goal and they’ll be OK.

Fingers crossed.

I do like Demitra Kesler and Raymond as a line.

Me too. It will work. And it will help when Demo returns tomorrow I think. No panic from me yet. The team has the abilities to win and needs to find that gear back at the beginning of games. They will. I’m sure of it. Like someone said above: if they finish this road trip 500 I’m ok with that

The more I keep visualizing Malkin’s vicious hit on Mitchell, the more I hear that Mitchell isn’t symptom-free yet, the more I see Malkin preening along the ice, the more I realize that Malkin got off scott free for what he caused, the more I hate the guy.